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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

We all know what role sales, marketing, or accounting play in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.😊

But there is another business discipline that also plays a crucial role in organizations — internal communications!

But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve, and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

What makes internal communication effective?

Examples of effective internal communications

Types of internal communication channels and tools

What are internal communication best practices?

What are the internal communication trends for 2026?

Why can’t your organization function without internal communication?

How Meltwater can help you improve team communication

Internal communication (also known as IC, employee communications, or team communications) refers to verbal and non-verbal means of communication within the company across different departments.

It entails everything – from informing employees about upcoming company events to announcing significant new hires.

Depending on the organization, internal comms can be the responsibility of any department, but it’s usually handled by HR, marketing, or PR.

It's standard practice to differentiate between formal and informal internal communication:

Formal internal communication happens through specific communication tools and channels (which we will cover in more detail later on).

Informal internal communication, on the other hand, covers all the information that is passed on (e.g. via rumors).

💡 And then there’s employee engagement...
 When it comes to internal communication in a business environment, there is another query that occasionally pops up – employee engagement. To avoid confusion, we have summed up the main difference between the two concepts:

Internal communication is the action a company takes to interact, and motivate its workers.

Employee engagement, however, is the reaction or feedback a company gets from investing time, strategy, and a certain budget to communicate with team members.

Now that you have a better understanding of what internal communication is, let’s find out why it’s essential for your business.

Effective communication in the workplace is a must-have for any business — whether you’re a small company just starting out or a global and established corporation.

Acquisitions, restructuring teams, layoffs, mergers, conflicts – there are times when every business encounters a crisis. This is when effective internal communications can do wonders.

People will have a lot of questions, and delicate information will have to be treated with special care. Being fully transparent and honest about what happened, who was affected by the incident, and what measures are planned (using a communication plan) will help the employees stay calm and respect the company even more.

Effective internal communications will breathe life into your company culture and help manifest it.

All news updates, CEO blog posts, and company announcements play an important part in how workers interpret the organization’s cultural landscape.

Therefore, every piece of content should convey, illustrate, or represent:

Let’s get one thing straight. Internal communications is NOT about the leadership sending messages to its employees.

It’s about promoting a two-way dialogue concerning topics involving the company.

People need to see that their opinion matters and is respected, regardless of which department they work in. If, for example, the marketing team has the opportunity to freely talk about a task they are working on or share updates, so should the tech team.

Such an approach enables people to have a more holistic view of what matters and is happening within the organization.  It also helps foster cross-departmental collaboration — something 17% of PR professionals surveyed in Meltwater's 2026 State of PR report say they want to see more of.

Defining the importance of good internal communications ... Check! ☑️

Next, let’s answer the following question...

Meltwater has integrated the ultimate teammate, Mira. Mira Studio is your AI-powered teammate that helps teams work together more effectively by turning complex data into clear, natural-language insights everyone can understand. This helps internal stakeholders stay aligned, informed, and confident in shared decisions. Take a self-guided product tour to find out how Mira can help your team work together.

71% of employees report being unsatisfied with the quality of internal communications (Staffbase, 2024). Improving the quality starts with implementing an effective internal communication strategy. We have compiled a list of things to consider when taking on the task.

Ask yourself “why” you want to implement an internal communication strategy.

Identify key metrics to track (e.g. employee satisfaction, employee referrals).

Segment your internal audiences (e.g. by role, department, part-time, or full-time etc.) and decide who should receive which messages.

Choose your channels to communicate effectively (e.g. print media, employee apps etc.).

Establish an approval process to ensure all messages convey priorities, are error-free, and support the company's brand and image.

After the strategy has been implemented, tweak and refine it if needed (involve your employees and ask for feedback).

<div style="background-color: #c4f4f4; padding: 20px;">💡 Tip: If you are starting from zero and need additional guidance, read our detailed <strong>step-by-step guide</strong> on how to set up an <a href="https://www.meltwater.com/en/blog/internal-communication-strategy">internal communication strategy</a>.</div>

Let’s take a look at how Bosch took employee communication to the next level.

In 2017, the company launched a TED Talks-inspired style format focusing on its workers – "The Spark."

The concept is fairly simple. At each event, 8-10 employees share their stories, skills, and knowledge with the rest of the organization and the world.

For the shy ones or those lacking experience in public speaking, the company even engaged coaches to help them prepare for the sessions.

23% of marketing professionals say that goals and objectives are spread across too many places, and 13% don’t know where goals are at all. As mentioned, choosing the right communication channels and tools can significantly improve how your team members communicate. 

Employee apps such as Slack are considered some kind of a super-channel for internal communication and are available to all employees — accessible with their company or private (mobile) devices.

Reach and connect to every team member in real-time

Implement measures quickly and effectively

Having a well-managed employee intranet has many benefits, as all-important company data is available in one place.

Stay up-to-date with the latest company developments

Moreover, companies often use the intranet to have better control of documents — e.g. team members can see who wrote what, who performed edits, or which is the latest file version.

Company podcasts and branded podcasts are becoming ever more popular!

They offer the perfect alternative to video and text, and employees can listen to the content without having to pay full visual attention.

A podcast from the company CEO is far more authentic than sending out a plain memo and will have a greater impact on people.

It’s also the optimal channel to reach those working from home.

Videos are the way to go if you want to increase employee engagement. It’s a fact that a combination of sound and visuals is more memorable than simply reading a text. Therefore, it's an ideal way to convey messages when you're looking for participation and responses.

They're easily accessible via various devices

With an internal company newsletter, information reaches your team:

When sending out a newsletter, keep in mind that people often don’t have the time to read never-ending text blocks. Therefore, dress it up with photos, graphs, GIFs, or videos to make it more engaging.

This tool is also ideal for acknowledging the accomplishments of your employees or mentioning a successfully completed team project.

Internal Communications Channels and Tools

What is internal communications, why is it important, and what are the tenets of a successful internal comms strategy?

Internal Communications Best Practices to Drive Your Business Forward

No matter what business you’re in, it is safe to assume that a majority of your customers are using social media. Most companies now have some kind of social media presence, whether it’s a basic LinkedIn profile or a huge footprint with multiple brand accounts across different platforms. Social media marketing is the process through which you can promote your products and content, reaching new and existing customers, encouraging stronger retention, and surging ahead of your competitors. 

What should be included in a social media strategy?

Different types of social media platforms

Examples of social marketing campaign types

How do you build a social media marketing strategy?

How can social media be used for lead generation?

How do you improve your social media strategy?

Here are some of the main benefits for businesses implementing an effective social media marketing strategy.

Build stronger relationships with your customers. For both new and long-time customers, your social network provides a way to stay in touch, offer customer service, and answer questions. Many customers today would rather interact on Facebook or Twitter than by phone or email.

Acquire new leads and customers. By posting regularly on social media, you can build your following. Not all of your followers will become customers, of course. But you can provide links to your website and opt-in pages to build out your base. Also, don’t discount the power of others sharing your content, putting it in front of more prospects.

Keep up with competitors. Social media has become the town square of the internet. You can find out what people are saying about your industry, the products they’re using, and what features they prefer. You can also follow your competitors’ pages for ideas.

Build brand awareness. One of the best reasons to post on social media is simply to get your message out to the world. According to the 2026 Global Digital Report, 72% of online audiences use social media for brand research. People are always more comfortable dealing with businesses that they’ve heard of, via word of mouth or a positive review. Even when someone doesn’t become your customer right away, they’re more likely to buy something from you or recommend you later on if they’ve seen your content. 

A broad social media marketing definition is: the practice of using social media platforms to reach business goals, such as customer acquisition, sales, and promoting brand awareness. Brands can post content in a number of different ways, and with a number of different goals in mind for each type of social media post.

Social media marketing also involves paid opportunities, advertising, and partnerships — all with the intention of getting your brand out there, improving the quality of your leads, and encouraging strong customer loyalty and retention. 

Top social media platforms for businesses include: Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook, and there are many, many ways to use these and other channels to build a robust and fruitful social media presence for your company. We’ll go into this in more detail below.

So the next question, of course, is how do you actually ‘do’ social media marketing and reap the benefits of this valuable marketing channel?

Well, there is really no “one way” to do social media marketing, but there are some best practices that will help you get on the right track toward success. When you’re thinking about developing a social media marketing plan, it’s important to be clear about your goals, your bandwidth, and the platforms you’ll be using.

Effective social media marketing comes from consistency, willingness to try new things, and using social analytics and specific social media analytics tools to gain learnings about what content is resonating with your followers.

Social marketing involves more than just posting pics on Instagram, Tweeting, and sharing product links to your social networks. You need to strike a balance between heavy promotional content — driving clicks to your site, and engagement content that may isolate the conversation on the platform in the immediate term, but keeps people interested in what you have to say and coming back for more.

Tip: Watch the following video to learn how to use social media to promote your business.

How To Use Social Media To Promote Your Business

If you want to specifically improve your overall Facebook marketing strategy, read our dedicated blog.

How to Leverage Facebook Recommendations for Your Business

Of course, your social media marketing strategy should also focus on Instagram marketing.

How to Use Instagram Ads — A Guide for Marketers

Your social media marketing strategy is what informs the “how”. The strategy is the “why,” and the “how” is the day-to-day work to make it happen. Your plan should include everything from which social platforms to use, what to say on each platform, and most importantly, the results you’re trying to achieve.

Most people are on social media today — in every age group, and around the world. But that doesn’t mean they’re all using the same channels, are seeing the same trending topics, or are using it the same way as everybody else. 

Before you even start defining your goals and drafting posts, you need to know your buyer personas inside and out. Where do they hang out on social, who they are, their values, and common interests? This kind of information can be obtained using social listening tools and will make your job as a social media marketer so much easier.  

When you’re making a marketing plan, for social media or any other medium, you should always start out by setting clear social media goals. Marketing without set goals is highly unlikely to drive any results. 

You could have one single goal, like brand awareness, or set multiple goals, like lead generation and increasing your brand’s reach. Setting goals also helps streamline your thought process, making it easier to create content for your social profiles.

Come up with a posting schedule that can be accessed by all key team members so everyone can see what content is planned and on what channels. A social content calendar ensures everything runs smoothly, with no unnecessary gaps in the schedule. 

Create a weekly or monthly calendar to avoid any last-minute chaos. A good strategy is to keep track of various holidays throughout the year, so you don’t miss important celebrations like National Chocolate Day and World Ocean Day.

Beating the algorithms is difficult, but one of the surest ways to be treated positively by them is to post often and regularly, and a calendar will help with that. Here are all the best times to post on social media (bear in mind these are not set in stone — depending on your location and your audience's age range, there might be more optimal times for you).

Keeping up with your calendar will be infinitely easier with a third-party social scheduling and management tool. This allows you to post to multiple social platforms from one place and pull high-level analytics from one place.

You can also use social media tools to automate your social media activities. These tools help you accurately measure and analyze your campaigns, including your share of voice, all in one single dashboard.

Tip: Download our free Social Media Marketing Platform Buyer’s Guide to learn which social media marketing tool is the right one for you!

Make sure you’re regularly pulling metrics so you can track the performance of your social media posts and hone in on what’s most successful in helping you achieve your goals. Some common metrics you should be looking at include: impressions, clicks, video views, comments, likes, and shares.

Most people today browse through social media on the go. Using impactful visuals that have the power to catch one’s attention can significantly improve your social media interactions. People are more likely to notice powerful imagery than read a caption. 

Once you capture their attention with a relevant visual, you can hold it with text. According to Meltwater's 2026 State of Social Media Report, video is the most popular content format, carousels have increased 24%, and images are the third most popular content type (Meltwater, 2026).

Check out our 5 Quick Tips for Social Video Content and learn about The Secrets of Successful Video Marketing.

Set aside a small budget to invest in paid social media ads. Social media platforms favor brands that pay, giving them more visibility. Reaching a large audience of potential followers purely using organic methods will be next to impossible for most brands. Boosting or promoting your posts is comparatively less expensive than Google AdWords, making it an effective strategy for small businesses.

Communities on social media are havens — places to find like-minded people, ask questions, share feedback, debate, and offer ideas. They can be small or large (micro-communities are where the power is for marketers!) and cover literally countless subjects, industries, activities, and interests. 

Join communities relevant to your business and target audience to know what people are talking about, share your own opinions, and even link to relevant articles or products on your website. If there aren’t many such communities for your industry, or they’re inactive, start building a social community yourself.

Social media marketing not only creates brand awareness but also creates a communication channel between your brand and your customers. Interact with your existing customers, or potential ones, and keep a close eye on every comment, like, follow, and share to take advantage of real-time opportunities. This engagement builds a sense of trust with your customers and is a great avenue for customer service.

10. Collaborate with brands and influencers

Influencer marketing is a great way to give your social media marketing efforts a significant boost. Collaborating with the right influencer(s) gives your brand greater visibility to a relevant audience and provides you with incredible user-generated content to use across other digital marketing channels. 

Additionally, you could also collaborate with other brands that already enjoy a good social following, to the mutual benefit of both businesses.

It’s important to think beyond the “big 3” in social networks, namely Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, for your social media strategy. 

Social media permeates far beyond these types of sites to include the following: 

1. Reviews sites (Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc)

Reviews are essential to your business — they are a huge deciding factor for consumers. One of the quickest and easiest ways to set yourself apart is by responding to reviews, both positive and negative. 

This shows you actually care about what people are saying and take the time out of your day to address issues and concerns. Negative reviews are hard to swallow, but depending on the context, they can sometimes turn into a full-blown crisis if not handled early.

One of the oldest tricks in the social marketing book is to participate in online discussions where there is a clear link between your product or service and the conversation. This practice tends to get cracked down on pretty hard by moderators, so it’s important to weigh the pros and cons. Make sure you contribute some value back to the discussion and don’t just drop in for self-promotion. 

Marketing through forums takes patience and dedication, but it can be worth it. There are thousands of micro-communities on Reddit; find the right one and get started! Read our Ultimate Guide to Reddit Marketing for more insights.

3. Multimedia sharing (Pinterest, YouTube, etc)

Multi-media is becoming more and more popular across social media, upping the ante for well-edited video, crisp graphics, and all kinds of digital effects. If you want to market using multimedia, don’t do it as an afterthought. 

For marketing on YouTube, for example, you should make sure you have the time to invest in polished videos — even simple ones take time. Instagram marketing is a little easier to incorporate, and you have a lot of options like Reels, IGTV, and Stories.

Pinterest is super popular for apparel and lifestyle brands, offering a great way to demonstrate different products that go well together.

4. Community blogging (Medium, Tumblr, etc)

Surge ahead in establishing yourself as a thought leader for your industry by writing articles and engaging with other content on a community blog site. This is an easier and quicker way to get in front of more eyes than posting on your own blog (which you should absolutely still do). 

Sites like Medium offer a unique opportunity to create content on any topic you want, neatly categorized and easy to read. Posting on Medium is a great way to flex your SEO muscles, too.  

How do you effectively make social media work for your business? Successful social media marketing means producing relevant, trend-aligned, audience-aligned, and timely content. Here's how to get started 

Ultimate Social Media Marketing Guide

TikTok has captured the attention of social media users around the world, making it a place businesses and brands want to be. What exactly does TikTok have to offer marketers that other platforms don’t? After looking at some general social media statistics it's time to dive into some of the most essential TikTok stats, facts, and details that will help you craft a winning social media strategy.

Before we dive into the specific TikTok numbers and statistics, it’s important for you to know more about the platform itself. Here’s what you need to know about TikTok:

TikTok is a Chinese-based social media app that specializes in short-form videos.

In 2026, TikTok in the U.S. became U.S. owned, avoiding an outright ban. 

ByteDance purchased and merged the lip-syncing app Musical.ly with TikTok in 2018.

In China, where the original app was released in 2016, TikTok is known as Douyin.

TikTok is available in over 75 different languages and more than 155 countries.

As more and more companies use TikTok for marketing and brand awareness, it's important to always have up-to-date information on TikTok usage stats, demographics, and more.

Though some may have once deemed the app a passing fad, its sustained growth, usage, and revenue have declared it anything but temporary.

The Meltwater Blog

Internal Communications Best Practices to Drive Your Business Forward

Ultimate Social Media Marketing Guide

45 TikTok Stats You Need To Know [2026]

How to Measure PR Performance Across LLMs and Generative Search

Trend Adoption Stages Explained: Matcha, Ube, and Pistachio Lattes

Influencer Measurement Tools: How To Track Full-Funnel Impact

Brand Safety in the AI Era: How to Correct Misinformation in Chatbots and AI Search

How Heated Rivalry Became One of Streaming’s Hottest Shows — a Social Listening Analysis

Social Listening vs. Social Monitoring: When and How to Use Effectively

20+ YouTube Statistics Marketers Need to Know in 2026

Effective GEO Strategies that Drive LLM Visibility

LLM Brand Mentions: How To Track, Key Metrics & More